Body Impolitic

Blogging about a wide range of body image and photography topics, and more.

BlogHer ’08: Amazing Women Everywhere You Look

<b>Laurie and Debbie say:</b>

This year’s BlogHer conference was in Laurie’s home city, and just across the bay from Debbie’s. Laurie went to the presenters’ party Thursday night. Laurie says: “The party gave me a chance to see folks I met last year in Chicago, have lots of brief intense conversations, and meet face to face and talk with panel members. Then I went to a party on the top floor of the Westin St. Francis and was completely knocked out by a 280 degree view of the city through tall windows. I took a slow tour around. It was amazingly beautiful. The St Francis is an old nouveau style hotel and I loved the decor.”

Friday morning, we both skipped breakfast and the keynote, and showed up in time for the first breakout session. We chose “Is Mommyblogging Still a Radical Act?” (liveblog transcript here) and found our first outstanding panel of the weekend. Lindsay Ferrier was an extraordinary moderator: the BlogHer style is to encourage statements, as well as questions from the audience and to operate with the assumption that everyone has something interesting to say. Lindsay modeled this perfectly, going to the audience even before all the panelists had had a chance to do more than introduce themselves. The result was a high-level, freewheeling discussion which nonetheless managed to stay focused. Laurie was really happy to have Lindsay as an example before she moderated her panel later that afternoon. All three panelists–Polly Pagenhart from Lesbian Dad, Maria from Immoral Matriarch, and Charlene Li, were as good as Lindsay. (The conclusion: a lot of different meanings of “radical” were in the room, and mommyblogging fits many, if not all, of them. Everyone was interested in the relationship among integrity, commoditization, and blogs as moneymakers. The potential impact of a nationwide–and bigger–network of women building community support networks and political power cannot be overestimated.)

After lunch, we went to “Race and Gender: What are the lessons of 2008?” (liveblog transcript here) If you’re a regular reader, you know that we don’t put much energy into electoral politics. But this panel was billed as going beyond that, and it completely lived up to its billing. The panelists were Adele Nieves (moderator), Maria Niles, Jill Miller Zimon, Cynematic, and Caille Millner. The panel covered an interesting range, not only of issues but of levels of experience. Once again, BlogHer’s cultural expectations made it possible to respect people who are new to these issues while clearly hearing the more complex and nuanced (and sometimes angry) positions. Topics ranged from the controversial New Yorker cover through white people working on racism in ourselves and others, to alternate metaphors (such as the Rubik’s cube) for discussing these subjects with less historical loading.

Laurie’s panel immediately followed this one (Debbie’s liveblog transcript with links to all participants here). Laurie says: “I was nervous about the moderation because Blogher’s approach needs a symphony conductor style. It took a lot of concentration, and it all went really well. We talked about body image issues, including size, race, gender, and sexualization of children in lucid and passionate ways. The conversation about early puberty development in both girls and boys and what that means in terms of parents’ and kids’ body image is one I really want to pursue. All three panelists were clear, lucid, intense and sometimes funny. I got my wish for a panel that discussed kids and body image in the broad and complex sense. The audience comments wove together with the panelists for a conversation that was way more than the sum of its parts. I wasn’t sure we’d pull this off and I was thrilled. Over the next day and a half, I really appreciated how many women told me that the panel was important, and good for them. I need to thank Denise Tanton and Jenny Lauck for their help.”

On Saturday, we went to one more fabulous panel (well, Debbie went to half of it): Blogging About Our Kids with Special Needs (liveblog transcript here). Panelists were Susan Etlinger, Shannon Des Roches Rosa, Kristina Chew, Jennifer Graf Groneberg, and Vicki Forman. The panel description says these women “are among those mommybloggers who are blogging their experiences and finding both a community and a cause.” Panelists and audience were sharing both intimate support and information and clearly finding the results helpful and important. The women in the room were a stellar example of mommyblogging as radical: this is a group which is truly pulling together to change laws, school policies, cultural expectations, and social attitudes. The discussion was intelligent, clear, and loving. Laurie says, “If you’re only going to read one transcript, read this one.”

There was lots of good stuff in the rest of the conference: other panels, hallway interactions, keynotes, swap meet, evening events. These were just the highlights for the two of us.

9 thoughts on “BlogHer ’08: Amazing Women Everywhere You Look”

Laurie – thank you for this post. I had a chance to look at Women En Large and it is phenomenal. I apologize that I don’t know the right words to say without offending but only want to praise what I would call the courage of both you and the models (if that’s the right term). I cringe whenever I have my photo taken, seriously, and have my whole life. I guess I have a few things to learn.

Anyway – thank you – for that book and this post. I’m not sure – I don’t think we met directly – but maybe next year. :)

I loved your panel, you were a masterful conductor!
I briefly met you in the hall at some point during the whirlwind weekend, just long enough to tell you that I admired you so much– you graciously accepted my words, and I walked away feeling proud of myself for stepping out of my self-conscious newbie mindset long enough to say what I really felt.
See? You were empowering without even meaning to!

Embodiment of integrity, strength, humor, intelligence, power, courage,true beauty…. Such are what I aspire to build with my life…and help others do as well..ever since my teens when I lost 40 lbs…and then ongoing as the ebb and flow and weight gain/loss in my life tended to reflect wherever my thoughts were….These days, while I am striving to live that embodiment, it’s still an effort to find balance with adoring the individuality of the form of our bodies with all that we seek to live and exude….You both to me have found this balance..with yourselves and with each other. And my only regret of blogher08 is that my volunteering duties prevented me from attending your session….I still think back to the packed room in Chicago….that was perhaps the most utterly honest session I’ve ever been to. You know you’re onto something huge when without a whole lot of trust building a captive audience just pours forth their innermost yearnings. It’s a privilege to witness your work and a true joy to say ‘I know them” :) May the coming year find you both continuing to grace all of us with your work….seriously. What you live and speak of shines through your photographs and works.
Please do keep me aware of exhibits and thank you too for the above post re: the olympics and gender testing. An author whose life and work are a continual inspiration to me–Mary Baker Eddy–writes in her main work Science and Health “Union of masculine and feminine qualities constitutes completeness.”
I love pondering that….she keeps it as qualities of thought. Feel the hug of gratitude pouring forth in this comment….